Prevalence of Bovine herpesvirus type 4 in aborting dairy cows.

Bovine herpesvirus type 4 (BHV-4) is related to many different conditions: infertility, postpartal metritis, vulvovaginitis, mastitis, encephalitis, calf pneumonia, keratoconjunctivitis, cutaneous lesions, digital dermatitis and abortion. In this study a retrospective PCR examination of 100 extracted DNA samples from aborting cows was performed in order to determine: prevalence of BHV-4 in abortive cattle, whether coinfections BHV-4 with other abortifacient pathogens are present in the same sample and to determine the month of gestation when BHV-4 associated abortions were detected. Out of 100 examined samples, the BHV-4 genome was detected in 21 samples (21%). In two samples we detected coinfection of BHV-4 with bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) and in one with Neospora caninum. Most of the BHV-4-associated abortions were detected during the seventh month of gestation. It was concluded that an active BHV-4 infection was present among cows that aborted on the farms examined. The high prevalence of the BHV-4 genome in abortion material suggests that this virus may have cause the abortions. Further studies and examinations are needed to establish causative connection between presence of BHV-4 and abortion.

Association between Pneumocystis spp. and co-infections with Bordetella bronchiseptica, Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae and Pasteurella multocida in Austrian pigs with pneumonia.

In this retrospective study, 218 pig lung tissue samples were analyzed to examine a possible association between Pneumocystis spp. using in situ hybridization, Bordetella bronchiseptica (B.b.) using immunohistochemistry (IHC), Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae (M.h.) by quantitative PCR, and Pasteurella multocida (P.m.; IHC). Compared to the bacterial agents (B.b., 5%; M.h., 30%; P.m., 23%), Pneumocystis occurred with a higher prevalence (51%). Co-infections with two or three pathogens were present in 28% of the examined cases. Those of Pneumocystis and M.h. were most commonly seen, followed by Pneumocystis and P.m. and M.h. and P.m. Histologically, interstitial pneumonia was found in both the Pneumocystis positive lungs and lungs with a mild M.h. infection. The B.b. and P.m. positive lungs were mainly associated with suppurative bronchopneumonia and severe M.h. cases with fibrinous or fibrino-haemorrhagic pneumonia. In suckling piglets, the number of samples positive for Pneumocystis predominated, whereas samples from fattening pigs were mainly positive for bacteria or Pneumocystis and bacteria.